


Song of Light - Ep. 1: Broken Paradise

by SpiritVDC



Series: Song of Light - A Warhammer 40,000 Saga [2]
Category: Warhammer 40.000
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-18
Updated: 2021-01-18
Packaged: 2021-03-16 11:47:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28830669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpiritVDC/pseuds/SpiritVDC
Summary: Set near the end of the 41st Millennium, the "Song of Light" series follows the story of an unorthodox Eldar Craftworld known as Ra'Shelwe, whose denizens are attempting to reverse fate by fighting for peace in a galaxy of war. By their side are various open-minded allies, including a diplomatic Sept of the Tau Empire and various renegade Imperial forces, all of whom were guided together by serendipitous destiny as they race to unravel a sinister web of conspiracy and contrivance that could bring the galaxy to its knees.
Series: Song of Light - A Warhammer 40,000 Saga [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1564312
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1





	Song of Light - Ep. 1: Broken Paradise

"Focus," Sirya whispered, holding her daughter's outstretched hand as gently as only an Eldar could. The young girl sat upon Sirya's knees, leaning back against her chest and concentrating on a broken Tau drone on the floor. "Clear your mind of all else and envision only the goal you wish to achieve. Feel it, become it," Sirya instructed.

Though she was several centuries old, Sirya's daughter, Eiva, was no taller than a ten-year-old human. Born long after the Fall, she had no memory of the glories that the Aeldari Empire had achieved, nor the heights from which they had fallen. Perhaps it was better that she did not know, Sirya thought, having been only a child herself when the great tragedy occurred. As her daughter concentrated, Sirya refrained from telepathically guiding her thoughts as they converged upon the drone; this would be a test of what she had learned so far. The young eldar's psychic potential flowed from her body and the air around her fingertips glowed with turqoise light; the drone levitated slowly at first, and then began quickly racing in cirlces overhead. Eiva smiled with delight as she swirled her hand through the air, the drone seeming to chase her dreams as she went. Sirya smiled along with her, cherishing the radiance of her daughter's joy.

"High Farseer?" A female Tau's voice came from their left. Sirya looked up to see O'Doran, the ambassador to the Eldar of the Craftworld Ra'shelwe, standing in the doorway of the shrine. Beyond the wraithbone windows, the distinct cityscape of a Tau Septworld could be seen across the horizon, with lush vegitation grouped cleanly into parks between the various population centers, both Tau and Aeldari alike.

"What is it, O'Doran?" Sirya asked. 

"I apologize for my intrusion," O'Doran replied, "but the council requests your presence. They said it was an urgent matter."

Sirya sighed heavily at the thought of enduring another one of Ethereal Aun'Ko's so-called 'urgent' meetings.

"Very well. Eiva, stay inside until I return," Sirya said.

"I will," Eiva replied, telekinetically lowering the drone into her hands and trotting off to her quarters further within the shrine. Sirya stood and followed O'Doran out onto the streets of the Tau colony.

The organic curves of wraithbone architecture would ordinarily look out of place alongside the metallic lines of Tau constructs, but the residents of the Kai'por Sept had gradually become used to seeing the two aesthetics mixed. The ancient people of the Craftworld Ra'shelwe, peculiar among the Aeldari, had been allowed to settle within the civilian populace of the Septworld following the negotiations between the two races. To the Tau, these arrangements were a sign that the Aeldari were turning over a new leaf and beginning to see the benefits of the Greater Good; for the Eldar, however, it was a necessary step to ensure their own survival in a galaxy that had long since turned against them.

"You know I can get one of our engineers to fix that drone for her, right?" O'Doran said.

"I know, but she's curious and enjoys playing with broken things," Sirya replied, "I feel that her mindset is better fostered than suppressed."

"Understood," O'Doran said with a satisfied nod.

Sirya had always found the Tau mindset endearing, like children playing at being Farseers or Autarchs before they understood the meaning of such terms. She pondered if Eiva's development had been influenced by Tau culture, as she had begun to display a similar level of curiosity ever since moving to the Kai'por Sept. Sirya envisioned that Eiva had the potential to become a great artisan of the Craftworld, where her love of fixing all that was broken could aid many for generations to come. Sirya wondered if this was the very reason her own mother had negotiated their Craftworld's alliance with the Tau in the first place, to guide this newborn race into becoming worthy of inheriting the galaxy without succumbing to the mistakes that had doomed the Eldar. If only her mother still walked among the living, Sirya thought, for she often doubted her own worthiness to inherit her mother's place as High Farseer of Ra'shelwe.

Her quiet musings were interrupted by the piercing wail of emergency sirens from every major building in the city; intruders were assaulting the colony. Sirya looked up and identified no fewer than 17 Stormraven gunships and 12 Charybdis-pattern drop pods, all with black hulls and rows of vicious golden spikes; Chaos Astartes. Their trajectories would set them down near the edge of the city, but within its defensive walls. Such was the efficiency of the Tau military that devilfish transports were already en route to the projected landing zones of the drop pods, while airburst cannons began roaring upward at the enemy aircraft. Sirya simply nodded to O'Doran, who immediately ran for the nearest emergency shelter, while Sirya bolted back to the shrine to arm herself for battle.

Several dropships fell from the sky as the coordinated firepower of the Tau defense line focused them down one by one. Those dropships which made it past the flak landed in central squares, which had already been encircled by fire warrior kill teams. Plasma bolts tore the air and scattered the dust that still hung heavy around the Astartes vessels as their black-armored occupants began to spill forth into the streets. Tau gun lines were answered by roaring bolter fire and battle cries from their nightmarish foes, whose demonic silhouettes taunted the resolve of the colony's defenders. Razorsharks screamed overhead, dogfighting with enemy Stormravens as they attempted to bomb the city.

Sirya stepped onto the battlefield and time seemed to slow as her senses made short work of the cacophany around her. Aided by runes that she had carefully embedded into her armor, her mind was now in tune with the ebb and flow of destiny, beholding every potential outcome of the conflict before her at once. She felt the psychic resonance of the Aspect Warriors that now decended upon the Chaos Astartes with as much clarity as the piercing shrieks of her Banshee sisters darting past. With a deep and deliberate breath, she focused her mind and excluded all other concerns from her perception; the time for bloodshed had come. 

She leaned forward slowly, then with a kick of her right foot, shot forward with such speed that the air rippled around her. Three Chaos Space Marines stood before her; their intentions were irrelevant as she easily hopped over the blade of the first and removed his head with her spear, then struck the blade of the second to divert it aside just enough to miss her shoulder before stabbing its wielder through the throat, after which she leveraged the shaft of her weapon against his falling body to vault herself into the air, spinning to elegantly bypass the chainaxe of the third as her spearblade impaled him vertically through the torso by way of his armor's neck gap. The entire sequence had only taken 4.3 seconds, and the previously isolated Tau defenders that she had liberated in the process stood in awe of her Aeldari grace; however, there was no time to bask in their admiration, for more intruders still drew breath. 

A hammerhead gunship hung in the air above the city, surrounded by several other Tau hovercraft and battlesuits; this was the field HQ of Commander O'Aloh, the leader of the Kai'por Sept's fire caste. She sat within the vessel surrounded by holo-displays, efficiently coordinating not only the crew of her own tank, but the soldiers of the colony's entire defense force. Physically, the Gue'ron'sha were mighty beyond reckoning, but in a combined-arms engagement, they were nothing before her superior mind. O'Aloh tapped her display screens as if playing a symphony on a musical instrument, with a comparatively harmonic coordination resonating through the computer networks of the city's defenders. By now, all of the invasive drop pods had either landed or been destroyed, with each unit of enemy soldiers attempting to tear into the city with reckless abandon. Where the fighting was thickest, she deployed Crisis battlesuit teams armed with plasma weaponry to slice through the heavy armor of the Gue'ron'sha, while redirecting unoccupied fire warrior teams to ambush stragglers as they made their way through the city's streets. With the aid of the Aeldari Aspect Warriors in cutting down the enemy's attempts to pierce their lines, O'Aloh allowed herself a smirk of satisfaction; this would be all too easy.

On the ground, Sirya had made her way to the primary battle line, where the majority of the remaining astartes had been pinned behind makeshift barriers of rubble and broken equipment. She focused her mind upon the Warp and drew its incomprehensible power into realspace, launching a beam of lightning from her palm into one of the barricades, which began to quickly melt under her assault. However, before she could finish burning through it, a flare of Warp energy suddenly ignited behind her, and Sirya spun around to see the forms of five hulking monsters as tall as Tau battlesuits; Chaos Terminators had come for her. With inhuman growls, all five raised their assault cannons in unison, and a hint of fear caused Sirya's focus to slip.

Before any of the terminators could pull their triggers, another, fainter flicker of Warp energy occurred beside them and the energy shields of their armor were raked by monofilament coils. The form of an Aeldari wearing a Warp Spider mantle, Striking Scorpion helm and heavy Aspect suit came into view for a split second before darting between the terminators; the one nearest Sirya went limp and collapsed with a loud, metallic crash. Sirya instantly recognized the Aspect Warrior before her as Lancier, Autarch of their Craftworld and father of her daughter. As he pulled his diresword from between the plates of the fallen terminator, the remaining four leveled their autocannons at him, only for Lancier to vanish a split second after they opened fire, causing the terminators' shells to splatter off of each others' armor. Lancier then reappeared a second later just above one of the terminators' heads, shoving his diresword with impossible precision through the eye socket of the terminator's armor.

Invigorated by the appearance of her love, Sirya again drew upon the power of the Warp, unleashing a blast of energy that stripped the remaining terminators of their armors' protective shielding before once again summoning her lightning beam, this time focused on the nearest terminator to her; its armor buckled under her assault and she darted forward, impaling its wearer through both hearts via the hole she melted in his torso. Before Sirya had even extracted her spear from her foe's body, Lancier rolled to a stop beside her, having dispatched the other two terminators with such skill and precision that even Sirya was impressed.

"Five guns made your focus wane? Perhaps you've been spending too much time with the Water caste", Lancier jested.

"Had you been any slower, I would've slain them all myself before you arrived," Sirya quipped back.

"Indeed, I'm sure you could've managed... now then, let's end this," Lancier said. 

The two Aeldari raised their weapons toward the remaining Chaos Astartes behind the barricades and opened fire, Lancier with his fusion gun and Sirya with her psychic lightning. The barricade quickly melted under the superiority of Eldar firepower, being blown aside by the final shockwave of Sirya's lightning and leaving the Chaos marines fully exposed. Crisis battlesuits decended, each carrying multiple plasma rifles, and began mowing down the fleeing enemy. Overhead, the surviving Stormravens were lifting off and flying back into the sky; the Chaos Astartes were retreating. 

In what should have been a joyous moment, Sirya's mind was flooded with agony so harsh that she nearly doubled over. Lancier gripped her hands to prevent her from falling and was about to ask what was wrong when the psychic sensation impacted him as well. Both of them looked into each other's eyes with horror as they realized where the psychic scream had come from. 

_Eiva_

Sirya and Lancier bolted for the shrine, only to see a Stormraven lifting off from its vicinity with the unmistakable psychic signature of their panicked daughter on board. All concerns for how the Chaos Astartes had managed to breach the shrine and what other damage they might've caused to it were irrelevant. Tears welled in Sirya's eyes as emotion overtook reason, and she lifted her hand toward the ship, her fingers crackling with psychic energy.

"No!" Lancier yelled, quickly covering her hand with his, "If that gunship crashes, Eiva dies. Leave her to me." Sirya could naught but nod in submission.

Lancier knelt and put his hand to the ground, reaching out with his mind to connect to his daughter's. He could feel her pain and terror as if it was his own. His body shivered as her helplessness washed over him; there was nothing he could do until the vessel she was on stopped moving. Several tense moments passed, and finally, Lancier felt through Eiva's mind that they had docked with the battle-barge; now was his chance.

The vessel's hangar resembled a vast maw, with twisted flesh writhing underfoot and gigantic metal teeth looming around the entrance, casting shadows over the vessels docked within. It was open to space, with only a forcefield keeping the atmosphere in. Eiva's wrists ached from the bonds her captors had hastily fashioned from broken metal, which uncaringly cut into her delicate skin. Rivers of tears still poured from her eyes, but her whimpering had been silenced by the marines' threats. No sooner had she stepped from the Stormraven than a flash of Warp energy tore the fabric of space around her, revealing the silhouette of her father in his full panoply of war. Eiva ducked as he leapt over her with practiced ferocity, beheading two Chaos Space Marines in mid-air and unleashing a storm of monofilament netting at the rest. The instant his feet touched the deck, he sprang forward, dancing past chainswords and bolter shells alike to carve apart the entire squad. In this moment, he was Khaine incarnate, the rage of the bloody-handed god flowing through his veins. Within the span of only three heartbeatsthe, last marine had fallen, and Lancier hastily calmed himself from his berserk battle-rage before turning to his daughter. Eiva was still weeping, but now wore a smile of the purest relief at her father's arrival. He cut the crude metal scraps from her wrists and hugged her, his psychic presence reassuring her that she was safe and loved.

Their moment was interrupted by the deafening sound of grinding bone as the bay doors closed. The hangars jutted away from the body of the ship just enough for a massive window to be emplaced toward its bow, allowing Lancier and Eiva to see forward along the vessel's hull; a massive vortex of Warp energy was forming in front of the ship as the Chaos Astartes prepared to activate the Warp drive. Lancier's mind raced. He had supposed that he could steal a Stormravens and pilot it back to the planet, but with the durability of the hangar doors and the shielded window before them, it would take too long to blast through them. Eiva quickly came to the same realization and cried out in horror; she had heard all the tales of the Warp and why the Aeldari were now terrified of it. Worse than that, this was a vessel of Chaos, and thus had no gellar fields, no protection from daemons flooding into the ship while it was in transit. To stay aboard when the vessel entered the Warp would be to leap directly into the ravenous maw of She Who Thirsts, and there was now no way out, except one. Lancier felt an irrevocable dread welling up inside him. The unshielded jumps made by Warp Spiders were among the most dangerous acts an Eldar could perform, as if taunting She Who Thirsts to leap from the darkness like a ravenous shark attacking its prey from below. It was reckless, suicidal... and their only hope.

There was no choice.

As the Warp gate flared to life outside the ship, Lancier threw his arms around Eiva and gripped her small frame with every ounce of his strength, bidding her to hold onto him as tightly as she possibly could, and then, he activated his jump pack. A second later, Lancier and Eiva appeared in a flash of witchlight and released each other. Lancier merely stumbled backward, but Eiva collapsed to the ground, her limbs lacking the strength to support her as she began vomitting uncontrollably, heaving up the contents of both her stomach and the blood vessels that had burst from the violence of her retching. She felt as though every organ had been torn from her body, turned inside-out and then slammed back into place.

"By Isha's tresses, be well," Sirya said. Her hand, pusling with cool azure light, was placed on her daughter's stomach. Within moments Eiva's vomitting was reduced to a sputtering cough, and her pain began to ease. Sirya removed a scarf-like tassel from her ceremonial robes and used it to wipe her daughter's mouth before pulling her into a gentle embrace.

"Mother... I love you," Eiva said as she leaned into Sirya's arms, still too weak to move her own.

Lancier simply looked on with satisfaction, smiling beneath his helmet. His family was safe and the enemy had been repelled. His attention turned to the city, which had sustained moderate damage, but nothing irreparable was lost, and more importantly, they were alive to rebuild it. Moments later, a Tau device on Lancier's wrist beeped, and he pressed the button nearby it, causing a hologram of Commander O'Aloh to appear in midair above his arm.

"Autarch Lancier, report." O'Aloh said.

"We are safe and all is calm," Lancier replied.

"Good to hear," O'Aloh continued, "Our preliminary census of the damages have revealed that many Tau, and even some Aeldari individuals, were taken by the Gue'ron'sha during the battle. We're organizing a force to retrieve them, but we will need your help to locate the enemy fleet, and possibly to reach it via the Webway if necessary. Can we count on your aid?"

Lancier glanced at Sirya, who simply nodded with an expression of valiant affirmation. 

"We'll organize our Aspect Warriors to join you," Lancier said. 

"Excellent. Shas'O Aloh'Cars'Hesa, out," O'Aloh said, and closed the transmission.

Sirya picked up Eiva, who had fallen asleep in her arms, and carried her back into the shrine. Lancier strode to her side and walked in-step with her.

"Do you think it's safe for Eiva to live here? An attack like this one could happen again at any time, and she may not be as fortunate in the future," Lancier said.

"I'll have to meditate upon this matter. I feel that she's benefitting from growing up so near the Tau, but her safety is obviously of much greater importance," Sirya replied.

"Whatever you decide, I'll stand with you... and I'll give my all to ensuring it comes to pass in the best possible manner," Lancier said.

"Thank you," Sirya said with a soft smile, "I couldn't have chosen a better partner."

_Author's Notes: All episodes are also posted on Fanfiction.net under "SpiritVDC" and on DeviantArt under "WH-Song-Of-Light". Follow me on DeviantArt for additional worldbuilding lore and art pieces related to this story._


End file.
